{"id":61897,"date":"2012-07-02T09:14:41","date_gmt":"2012-07-02T13:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=61897"},"modified":"2012-07-10T09:48:36","modified_gmt":"2012-07-10T13:48:36","slug":"bioinspired-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2012\/07\/bioinspired-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Bio-inspired Science"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Yao<\/a>
Yao Lin, assistant professor of chemistry, is inspired by concepts in nature to create innovative materials. (Daniel Buttrey\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yao Lin, assistant professor of chemistry in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, is inspired by nature. But despite the joys of walking by a beautiful stream and savoring a golden sunset, what really drives him is inspiration from the environment that could lead to new technologies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m interested in bio-inspired science,\u201d he says. \u201cI want to use the concepts of nature to make smarter materials.\u201d<\/p>\n

In particular, says Lin, the movements and communication between proteins \u2013 the building blocks of all life \u2013 have long stumped scientists. Chemists approximate their structure using smaller strings of polymers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no way synthetic materials can compete with this kind of sophistication yet,\u201d says Lin. \u201cIn biology it is essential that proteins fold together and self-organize at the right position at the right times. We\u2019re trying to incorporative that cooperativity into our synthetic molecules.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m interested in bio-inspired science. I want to use the concepts of nature to make smarter materials.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This molecular cooperativity is what makes proteins work together to form, say, fibers on the wall of a cell in your body, or the right enzymes to digest your food. In nature, says Lin, there\u2019s not a big computer telling all the different pieces where to go and what to do \u2013 they can all communicate naturally, which is a big leap ahead of any synthetic material.<\/p>\n

But, says Lin, you\u2019ve got to start somewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we make polymers, they\u2019re like spaghetti \u2013 long and loose,\u201d he says. \u201cIf we can get them to fold and touch each other, for example, making some helical turns, then the system will become more organized.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of making \u2018spaghetti\u2019,\u201d he continues, \u201cwe\u2019ll be making structures that eventually bring us functions.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2011, Lin and his colleagues created a new family of what\u2019s called giant supramolecules, made up of many octopus-like polymers that wrap around each other into a hollow tube, similarly to the natural folding and self-organization of a class of proteins called tubulins. The tube then twists again into a double helix, making the new molecules potentially very strong but lightweight.<\/p>\n

Early in 2012, Lin received a five-year, half-million dollar CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation to continue this work, looking especially at natural self-healing fibers like silk.<\/p>\n

\u201cSilk is both strong and stable,\u201d says Lin. \u201cHow does it do it?\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if this strong, flexible, and lightweight material could be strong enough to stop bullets, potentially paving the way for a superhero suit of the future, Lin laughs. He doesn\u2019t set those kinds of benchmarks, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we understand the concept, somebody else can take it and make it into something useful,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s really the part he loves about science, he says \u2013 discovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really like it when students bring in unexpected results,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen you\u2019re always solving puzzles, it\u2019s like being a kid. You stay young.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chemistry professor Yao Lin is tapping into the concepts of nature to make novel synthetic materials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":61369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[63],"class_list":["post-61897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-10 19:49:59","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61897"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61906,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61897\/revisions\/61906"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/61369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61897"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=61897"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=61897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}